Annunciator



H. J. APPLETON.

ANNUNCIATOR.

A PPLICATION FILED SEPT.15, 1919.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

tilt/Wan H. I. APPLETON.

ANNUNCIATOR.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I5. 1919.

Patentd Mar. 30, 1920.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

M ICHIGAN THIRD TWPEPMBHW H. J. APPLETON. ANNUNCIATOR. 1,335,215 APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 15, I919. Patented Mar 30, 1920 v c .0. Z x J /Y 51 2w W l /f n H. J. APPLETON.

ANNUNCIATOR.

APPLICATION man SEPT. 15, 1919.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

4- SHEETSSHEET 4- Wang UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY J. APPLETON, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

ANNUNGIATOR.

Application filed September 15, 1919.

To all 1.0 hom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY J. APPLETON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Annunciators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to street car annunciators, and has for its object a street car annunciator provided with a novel form of operating apparatus to give a differential peripheral speed to the rolls. It also has novel features in driving the rollers which will more fully appear when the detailed description is understood.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a plan view of the driving apparatus for the rolls.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the casing showing the driving apparatus and rolls in elevation.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the rolls and driving apparatus and a vertical section of the housing or case.

Fig. 4: is a detail showing one of the gears for securing a dilferential peripheral driving speed.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the driving pinion shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is an elevation showing the trip switch and trip loop, used in connection with the trolley.

Fig. 7 is an elevation of the same parts but taken at a 90 degree angle from that of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 is a section taken on ,the. line 9-9 of Fig. 6, showing the trip switch open. v

Fig. 10 is a righthand view of the merrilsection taken on the line 88 bers 100 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 11 is a diagrammatic View of the apparatus.

a designates the housing which is of roughly T-shape in cross section, as shown in Fig. 3, with observation windows 7) and 0 in the front and back of the annunciator. The brackets d and c are at their bottoms fastened to the sides of the casing and at their tops are fastened to the top of the easing. An angle bracket f runs across the top of the casing and serves to secure the sides to the top, of the casing. An angle brace g fastens the two side pieces of the casing together to allow the upper Specification of Letters Patent.

. mechanism.

the spring for keeping" Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

Serial No. 323,691.

part of the casing to be offset for the pur pose of forming1 a chamber for the driving T e upper roller h is journaled in the supporting brackets c and (Z, as is also the lower roller 71. The sign-bearing ribbon j is drawn off from the upper roll over the guide rollers 70 and onto the lower roll, or vice versa. The lower roll 71 is driven by the belt Z (Fig. 3) that runs over the sheaves m and onto the sprocket n which is on the end of a shaft 0 fastened to the driving cone p (Fig. 2). This driving thread 9 notched to form teeth r which engage with the teeth of the driving pinion s. The sides of the driving pinion are beveled to engage between the opposed faces of the two outside threads of any group of three, while the teeth engage the teeth of the intermediate thread of any group of three. Hence, inasmuch as the thread is a spiral, this pinion is caused to travel longitudinally upon the squared driving shaft 25, while it also rotates the cone. Obviously as it travels to the right in Fig. 4, it would increase the rotating speed of the cone, while traveling to the left of Fig. 4 would decrease the speed. There is also a cone 1) and a driving pinion s for the upper roll h. "This is mounted to the other side of the upper roll it and is provided with a sprocket a (Fig. 3) which drives the upper roll through the belt '0 and the sprocket w. Obviously when one driving pinion s is traveling in one direction on its shaft, the other pinion will be traveling in the opposite direction, and whereas the peripheral speed of one roll increases due to the winding of'the ribbon thereupon, the peripheral speed of the other roll decreases due to the unwinding of the ribbon therefrom. This different direction of travel of the two pinions 5 can be accomplished by having a right and left hand thread on the two cones. The two squared shafts t are driven by the sprocket wheels 00 and 3/ which in turn drive the beveled gear 2 that meshes with the spur gear 1 on the end of the squared shaft If. These two sprockets m and g are driven by the chain 2 that runs over the large sprocket wheels 5 and 6 at its opposite end; These ratchet wheels have teeth that face in opposite directions. The ratchet wheel 5 is .drivenby the rack bar 7 Fig; .3) and the ratchet wheel 6 is driven by the lower rack bar 8. These two rack bars are jointed to the rods 9 and 10 respectively, which run through the guide brackets 11 and 12. The u per rod 9 is bolted to a yoke bar 14 (Fig. 1) Which is connected with a pair of solenoid plungers 16 that are sucked outwardly by the solenoids against the resistance of the retracting spring 17 that engages with the outer end of the pin 19. WVhen the spring retracts the plungers and the racks the inclined outer ends 20 (Fig. 3) ride up on the pins 21, which disengages the rack teeth from the ratchet teeth. This enables either rack to drive its ratchet so that a reversal of the driving mechanism can take place at any time. The lower rack 8 is connected with a yoke 23 that has the plungers 24 at its ends, and these plungers are sucked out by the operation of the pair of solenoids 25. The spring 26 in connection with the pin 27 serves to retract the solenoid plungers 24 and the rack 8. The fiat spring 28 (Fig. 3) tends to keep the teeth of the upper rack 7 in engagement with the ratchet teeth. The spring 29 serves to keep the teeth of the lower rack 8 in engagement with the ratchet V teeth. The ratchet wheels are kept locked when the sign-bearing ribbon is not being shifted by means of the pin clutch 30 (Figs. 1 and 2) having pins 31 adapted to engage in the perforations 32 (Fig. 3) of the ratchet wheels. This clutch is released by the solenoid 33. V

Turning to Figs. 6 to 10. inclusive, the trip switch which releases the clutch and furnishesthe power to operate the driving solenoids, will be understood. 34 is the tr0lley pole; 35 the trolley wheel; 36 the trolley line; 37 the cross wire that supports the trolley line. The trip wire or loop 38 is supported from the cross wire 37 by means of the arm 39. The ends of this trip wire 38 are provided with cradles 40 that hook under the trolley wire 36 and serve both to support this wire 36 and keep the trip wire or loop 38 from rocking. The trip switch comprises a pair of arms 41, each carrying a trip contact wheel 42. One trip arm is expected to operate in travel one way on the track and the other trip arm to operate in travel in the opposite direction. It will be seen from Fig. 7 that the outer trip contact wheel 42 does not engage the trip wire 38. When traveling in the opposite direction the outer trip contact wheel 42 would engage another trip wire 39 properly located for this purpose. Each of these trip arms 41 is provided with a spring electrode 43 adapted to make contact with the spring electrode 44. When the trip arm 41 is tipped back by reason of the trip contact wheel 42 striking the trip wire 38, this establishes a circuit, which can be traced the diagrammatic view in Fig.

of solenoids and at the same time release the clutch. The travel of the solenoids and the accompanying rack bar turns the proper ratchet wheel a given distance, which in turn rotates the two driving cones and through them the rolls. When they trip switch is released the spring 50 returns the trip arm and the solenoid spring returns the rack bar and the clutch is disengaged by its spring.

The finger switches 45 and 46, shown in Fig. 2 and diagrammatically in Fig. 11 are for the purpose of moving the upper or lower rack bar in precisely the same way as the trip switch does. This may be necessary if for any reason the ribbon gets out of step with the trip switches along the way.

What I claim is:

1. In an annunciator, the combination of a pair of rolls, a sign bearing ribbon adapted to wind on one of the rolls and ofl" the other 'roll, andcompensating means comprising a pairl of cones placed at opposite sides of the periphery of one of the rolls, a driving connectio-n from one of the cones to one of the rolls. a second driving connection from the other cone to the other roll, and an automatically-shiftable driver for each cone, the drivers for the cones being shifted longitudinally of the cones in opposite directions to increase the speed of one roll and simultaneously decreasethe speed of the other roll.

2. In an annunciator. the combination of a pair of rolls, a sign-bearing ribbon traveling over the rolls. and means for driving the rolls and including two ratchet wheels having oppositely-facing teeth and which rotate together, two rack bars one for each set of teeth normally held out of contact therewith. and separate solenoids that may be selectablv energized to bring; one of the rack bars into engagement with one of the ratchet wheelsand rotate the ratchet wheel in either direction by moving one or the other of the rack bars.

3. In an annunciator. the combination of a pair of rolls, a sign-bearing ribbon passing over the rolls, and means for driving the rolls including a pair of ratchet wheels fastened together and having oppositely-directed teeth. two rack bars one for each set having oppositely-directed teeth, a pair of rack bars one for each ratchet wheel, separate solenoids for actuating each rack bar, a pin clutch for locking the ratchet wheels, and electrical connections for simultaneously disengaging the pin clutch and selectably operating either solenoid to drive the ratchet wheels in either direction.

5. In an annunciator, the combination of a pair of rolls, a sign-bearing ribbon passing over the rolls, and means for driving the same including a pair of ratchet wheels having oppositely-directed teeth, a pair of racks one for each set of teeth, separate solenoids separately energizable for moving the rack bars to turn the ratchet wheels, means for retracting the rack bars, pins, and an inclined surface on each rack 'bar for engaging a pin when the rack bar is retracted to lift the rack bar out of engagement with the 20 teeth of the ratchet.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

HENRY J. APPLETON. 

